Mixing machines are known, comprising one or more mixing devices and able to mix a fluid product, such as for example a paint, contained in a closed container.
Each known mixing device comprises movement mechanisms, having at least an electric motor able to impart to the container, and hence to the product contained therein, a series of mixing movements. According to the different types of mixing movements, there are different types of mixing devices: vibrational, gyroscopic, rotational-vibrational, orbital.
Known mixing devices also comprise a clamping or containing mechanism able to temporarily clamp the container to the movement mechanisms, by means of a suitable clamping pressure.
Each fluid product has its own characteristics, variable for example according to its specific weight and its volume, its fluid-dynamic and rheological characteristics and its state of preservation.
Moreover, each container has variable characteristics connected to its geometric shape, its dimensions, the material of which it is made, and also its state of preservation.
The homogeneity and effectiveness of the mixing of a fluid product therefore depend on a multiplicity of characteristics, like those of the product itself, its container, and the type of mixing device.
Some known mixing devices allow the user to chose some parameters, such as for example the speed of rotation of the motor, the duration of the rotation, and the possible clamping pressure.
According to the state of the art, in order to mix a determinate fluid product, the user or operator first chooses the mixing machine from those available at the site where he is, for example in a sales outlet; subsequently, according to the type of mixing machine chosen, he sets the parameters manually, which the machine allows him to vary, and thus defines a determinate mixing cycle.
Therefore, known machines have the disadvantage that a determinate mixing cycle is chosen at the discretion of the user, that is to say, empirically and hence subject to errors.
Consequently known mixing machines do not allow an effective and pre-defined correlation between the characteristics of the product to be mixed and the mixing cycle to be carried out.
In the state of the art, the metering process and the mixing process are separate both in space and in time, and take place in two or more different machines, often made by different producers, arranged more or less close to each other and operating sequentially, one after the other. The only integrating element between the two processes consists of the human intervention, through manual interventions and empirical decisions made by the operator, sometimes with little specialization and often under urgent sales conditions. In present sale points there is no form of physical-functional integration of dispensers and mixing machines. Only in the large, paint-producing plants, that is, in the factories, are there automatic systems to move the drums or containers, which manage the movement of the latter between dispensers and mixing machines.
This entails the following disadvantages.
The repeatability of the same paint is today entrusted mainly, or almost exclusively, to the metering process. The very high requisites of precision, accuracy, repeatability that can be obtained in the metering process, that is, upstream, through sophisticated and high cost technologies, can be cancelled or penalized by inappropriate mixing processes, decided empirically or subjectively, downstream.
The intelligence available overall in processing machines on the whole, that is, for metering and mixing, present in the sale points, aboard the dispenser and/or the mixing machine in the form of a PC and electronic command and control units, is often under-used, since it is exclusively used to automatically actuate cycles that are set manually, leaving the operator to decide, according to a limited field of combinations and variants, the fundamental parameters for the successful outcome of the mixing, such as: the duration of the cycle, by means of a timer and, where present, the speed of mixing, by means of a push-button panel.
Until now it has been impossible to manage the basic information of the whole process to prepare the paint in a systematic, integrated and “scientific” manner and, for example, to choose the most suitable mixing machine, from all those available, for that type of product to be mixed and the most suitable cycle for that type of product.
Furthermore, until now, no feedback information was available on the state of progress of the process under way, of the production program of the dispensing or mixing machines and on the state of preservation of the machines themselves, and of their components. The process to prepare the paint therefore took place “in an open ring”.
One purpose of the present invention is to achieve a mixing machine and perfect a relative method that are able to perform mixing cycles according to the characteristics of the product, of the container and/or of the mixing device, in a selective and substantially automatic manner.
Another purpose of the present invention is to ensure a uniform effectiveness in the various mixing cycles.
Another purpose of the present invention is to achieve a control apparatus in a “closed ring”, for example by means of a “real time on-line” connection which:                operates bi-directionally between one or more dispenser units and one or more mixing units;        is able to make the chosen mixing unit perform the optimum mixing cycle of those possible;        identifies this cycle according to objective information available upstream;        controls and monitors the performance of the mixing cycle during which it acquires information useful for monitoring the state of preservation of the mixing machine and its components and other information useful for servicing and marketing needs, to be communicated upstream.        
Another purpose of the present invention is to make possible a bi-directional and bi-univocal transfer of information concerning the process, the state, the life of the dispensing and/or mixing machines, from one or more units or modules, which can be, in relation to the necessary operating configurations, integrated in the same machine, present in different but nearby units or remote units, connected in a network, such as for example internet, intranet, extranet or others.
Another purpose of the present invention is to achieve a communication network that allows a central memory, present in a server, a computer or other, wherever it is located, to manage de-localized memories, allowing them to choose between the dispensing machines and/or mixing machines available there, the most appropriate ones to obtain the expected result and make them operate in the most convenient manner and/or to receive from said machines information useful to recognize the state of functioning or preservation of the machine, and to take the consequent measures to improve it.
The Applicant has devised, tested and embodied this invention to overcome the shortcomings of the state of the art and to obtain these and other purposes and advantages.